For a second year, the folks at Shabang very kindly invited us out to San Louis Obispo for a weekend in the hills scored by the likes of Thundercat, Peach Pit, and indie-folk musician Kate Bollinger.

We called Kate a few weeks before the festival to talk about change, an upcoming album release, and artmaking in communion with our loved ones.

Mac: When did you discover your creative spirit?

Kate: My mom is a musician and a music therapist. So growing up, she was just always playing guitar and writing songs and singing. She also released nine children's music albums throughout my childhood. So she had kids singing on her records. And I was always included in that. Since I was old enough to sing, I was a part of her project. It was just a really musical household. I have two older brothers and both of them are musicians.

Mac: Have you had any standout experiences making music with friends lately?

Kate: I live in L A now. I moved from Virginia like year and a half ago. But, I have a group of really good friends here who all make music and have their own music projects. My friend Emma is a historical costume maker, so she makes costumes and sells patterns and stuff like that. And then my friend Eve has her own thing. She does a lot of production design and she paints a lot of things for my music.

It's what I had hoped would happen in my life. It's happening now, which is I have a group of friends all doing creative things.

My friends, Emma and Al and I started sharing our songs with each other. So I shared a song that I wrote with them and then I was like, let's record it. And so he played bass, my friend Emma sang harmonies and we just recorded it on the spot, which is kind of like what I used to do. But I feel like I wasn't doing that at first when I got to L A because everyone's trying to, like, make their career happen or whatever. And it just felt like I was sort of getting back to what I like doing in the first place, which is just like playing music with friends.

Mac: Would you say that friendship is part of your inspiration when it comes to what you’re making art about?

Kate: Definitely. Pretty much all my music is just about relationships that I have and every song is just like a little vignette. I feel like every song that I have is just like a moment that's been captured. Like most songs,, but yeah, I moved across the country like a year and a half ago.

So a lot of this music that I have on this record that's coming out later this year is kind of about that. Also different experiences with growing up.

Mac: I’ve been listening to your music since high school, about 5 years now. Has the way you make music changed at all?

Kate: I feel like it's changed a lot. My approach to songwriting has been pretty consistent. Five years ago is probably when I met my friend John , who is a producer, that I met when I was in college.

We were both in school together. When we met, he started recording songs that I had already written that I would just bring to him. Then we started writing together and from there, he would send me a song that he made and I would write to it, and we tried out all these different modes of songwriting. Which was amazing at the time because it kind of helped me find my voice during that time. I don't know if I would have found my voice as quickly had I not had somebody else there to bounce ideas off of constantly.

But I also think now that I'm here in L A, I'm back to writing on my own a little bit more. I think that I go about it a little bit differently. At that time, it kind of felt in a way like we were a duo or something because we were writing together so much. This album that I have recorded now that's coming out this year, it feels a bit more like my first solo effort. Whereas the stuff that I did with John felt a little bit like a band even though it wasn't.

Mac: What elements of the new album are you excited to share?

Kate: After I moved here, I did a lot of trial sessions and recording days with different producers. I didn't really understand why things didn't sound the way that I wanted to. A lot of the music that I love is music from the late sixties, that's just friends or people that know each other intimately or have played together for a long time.

And I was like, why doesn't my music sound like that? Everything I was trying to do sounded so cold and sterile. And then I started working with Sam Evian. He's a songwriter but also a producer who lives in upstate New York. I went up there with my drummer Jacob, who's my friend from high school , Sam, who played bass, and then this guy Adam played guitar. We made this little band for a week and recorded 11 songs in five days or something.

And then I stayed after everybody else left with Sam; we recorded all the extra overdubs and stuff like that. But I'm really excited about this album because it feels that way that I was hoping for, for so long. We didn't use click tracks really. We didn't really use headphones. It's pretty much all recorded live. So it just sounds really natural and the essence that I've wanted for a long time.

And I'm working on a bunch of music videos right now. It's with that same group of friends. Emma and Eve are gonna be starring in pretty much all the videos, which I'm excited about. Emma does a lot of costumes for the videos. Eve hand-painted the signs that are part of the album cover. Just a lot of art stuff that I'm psyched about.

Mac: How has the shift from working on EPS to an album been?

Kate: I mean, it's been really fun because I like all of the work that goes into it. It’s just like gathering different pieces of art. But it's definitely a lot more work than with my EPS. It feels like the difference between making a short film and a feature. It just takes so much more time, and so many different little things that you kind of can't anticipate will be part of it are part of it.

But I'm excited to finally have a bigger statement out there rather than just an EP . I feel like in the past I haven't been very patient with putting things out. I just wanted to do something and put it out, which I love and I love when other artists do that, but this feels a little bit more like an intentional piece.

Kate Bollinger: Shabang x Rambler

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Kate Bollinger: Shabang x Rambler

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